


x marks the spot

by etoilette



Series: AU-gust 2020 [16]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25951210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilette/pseuds/etoilette
Summary: Sojiro brandishes an old and ripped up piece of paper from his apron.“I found this in the mailbox this morning. It looks like an old treasure map of some kind. I can’t make heads or tails of it though, but Akira here told me that you’re a detective?”ORDetective Akechi Goro is on a treasure hunt, and his ever-loyal Watson, Kurusu Akira, accompanies him the entire way. It's a bit of a dangerous journey, but the two of them can handle anything that tries to get in their way.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: AU-gust 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860436
Comments: 6
Kudos: 103





	x marks the spot

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day #16 of AU-gust: Treasure Hunters AU. 
> 
> This is straight up not an actual treasure hunters AU, and more like a kid fic (yet again) but in an alternate no powers universe where Akechi and Akira met as kids, and they are friends. Obviously because they are kids, they aren't in a romantic relationship. This fic is really cheesy, by the way. 
> 
> Komazaki Olympic Park is based off of Komazawa Olympic Park. It's the only park near the Setagaya ward (Sangenjaya) that I could find on Google Maps that would be reasonable for two kids to go to, especially when set on the task by an adult.

Akira really likes it when Goro visits Yongen-Jaya, especially in the winter, because the older boy is always shivering in his thin sweaters. He likes that he can give Goro something, even if it’s just an old red hoodie two sizes bigger than him that his mom accidentally bought. 

Sometimes he wonders if maybe his mom saw how Goro is always too cold, and pretended to make a mistake, because the hoodie isn’t even something she would normally get for Akira. 

Goro enters Leblanc as quiet as he can, though the bell hanging by the door betrays him, and he bows low, until his forehead almost touches his knees. “Thank you for having me,” he says, in the formal and stuffy voice he uses when he talks to adults.

Akira waves at him, even though he knows that Goro would never wave back until all the grown-ups are gone, and Akira’s mom smiles at him. 

“Hello, Goro-kun,” she says, waving him over. In the beginning, Goro hesitated a lot more, always bracing himself as if he expected Akira’s mom to slap him in the face the second he was within distance, but now he nods and races towards them, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.

“Good morning, Mrs. Kurusu,” he says. 

“Good morning! You’re as polite and sweet as usual,” she says with a smile before looking at Akira with a teasing look in her eye. “You could take a leaf out of his book.”

Akira kicks his feet. He doesn’t really like it when his mom tries to compare him with Goro, because Goro would always become so nervous later, but no matter how much he tells her to stop, she refuses to listen. 

Even now, he could see Goro fiddling with his sleeves, as if he isn’t sure if he wants to pull them down or not. The awkwardness is broken by Sojiro, who harrumphs loudly as he approaches the table with a tray full of curry and coffee. 

“Sit down, kid,” he says gruffly. Goro scrambles into the booth, shoving into Akira’s shoulder, as Sojiro starts to pass plates and cups around the table. Akira’s mom immediately sips from the cup of coffee, while Goro and Akira are still peering excitedly into their cups of Calpico. “Eat your lunch before you go outside later.”

Goro tilts his head. “Why would we go outside later?” 

It’s a valid question, since most of the time Goro drops by Yongen-Jaya to spend time with Akira whenever Akira’s mom leaves him at Leblanc as if Sojiro is a glorified babysitter, the two of them stay in the attic. They pretend it’s their secret base, that they’re Feathermen-in-training, and spend entire days in there until Akira’s mom picks them up again.

Today though, Sojiro gave Akira a little secret, and Akira is vibrating with excitement as Sojiro brandishes an old and ripped up piece of paper from his apron. 

“I found this in the mailbox this morning. It looks like an old treasure map of some kind. I can’t make heads or tails of it though, but Akira here told me that you’re a detective?”

Goro looks down at the table, playing with the polished wood with a finger as he blushes. “I’m not much of a detective…”

“Yes, you are!” Akira bellows, uncaring of his mom kicking him under the table. “You found Sasaki-san’s cat for her!”

It had been so cool, the way Goro had set the trap for Sasaki-san’s cat, with the cat’s bedding and toys and a plate of food laid out in Setagaya Park. They had huddled together in the bushes, watching and waiting while munching on snacks Akira’s mom packed for them, until they saw the telltale orange fur of Sasaki-san’s cat emerge from a tree, meowing plaintively. Goro had been so red the entire time Sasaki-san thanked him, and he even shared the reward candy and money (a thousand whole yen!!) with Akira, even though all Akira did was keep him company.

Goro blushes even more, until he’s as red as a tomato, and Sojiro chuckles. “Well, when you two finish your lunch, then you two can go ahead and look for the treasure. I’m confident that you can solve it, Goro.”

“Me too!” Akira hollers, wincing when Akira’s mom kicks him for a second time.

“Me three,” Akira’s mom says sweetly, even as she eats the last bite of her curry. “But you two won’t have much time for solving the mystery if you don’t start eating your lunch.”

Akira and Goro immediately start shoveling the curry into their mouth, and Akira even manages to keep the Calpico from coming out of his nose when Goro starts to choke on how spicy the sauce is on his tongue.

X

“The first order of business is in interrogating our suspect!” Goro says as soon as they walk out of Leblanc, their bellies full of food and their pockets full of money, candy, and the cellphone that Akira’s mom lets him use when she is at work. “We need to ask Nanase-san about the map!”

“Why Nanase-san?” Akira asks with a frown. Nanase-san is the old man who works at the recycling shop near Leblanc, and he’s always grumpy, never smiling or saying anything to the kids even when they use their pleases and thank yous. He would never admit it, but Nanase-san scares him a little. If they could avoid it, he doesn’t want to see him, especially when he could be spending the time with Goro instead.

“The map looks old, see?” Goro says. He carefully takes the map out of his pocket and unfolds it, pointing out all the stains and tears. “It must be from Oda Nobunaga’s time.”

Hearing the name sparks excitement deep in Akira’s heart and he jumps up and down with delight. “Do you think we’ll find Oda Nobunaga’s secret treasure?”

“I don’t think that’s true. I think that’s just a rumour,” Goro says with a frown, but Akira can’t be dissuaded. He can already imagine living like a king, buying as much candy as he wants and never having to go to school again. He would live in a giant mansion with five bedrooms in it just because, and he would make sure that Goro moves in with him so that they could play together every single day for the rest of their lives. 

He doesn’t tell Goro this, though, of course, because Goro has an overly serious look on his face.

But the idea of maybe finding Oda Nobunaga’s stash of gold fills Akira with new hope and energy, and he runs to the recycling shop, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll race you!”

“Not fair, you got a head start!” Goro yells, but he manages to catch up to Akira, the two arriving at the recycling shop almost at the same time. It’s another tie, which Akira hates, because he likes it when he can win against Goro, but seeing the big smile on Goro’s face more than makes up for it.

Nanase-san had been reading a book behind the counter and he peers up at them over his thick-rimmed glasses, an eyebrow raised as he considers the two panting boys before him. “Can I help you two?” 

The two bow and say their greetings, and then Goro takes out the map again but hesitates. He clutches at the map so hard that it’s wrinkly, and he looks down at the ground, trembling.

“I’m a busy man, you know,” Nanase-san sighs. He taps on the cover of the book - one, two - and frowns. “If you don’t have anything to say, then could you please go bother someone else?”

Goro averts his gaze to the ground, and Akira feels his face heat with anger when he sees some tears gather in Goro’s eyes. He doesn’t want to be mean or rude to Nanase-san, because then he would get in trouble, but he doesn’t like it when Nanase-san is being mean and rude to his best friend. 

He snatches the map out of Goro’s hand and holds it open for him. “Nanase-san, do you know anything about this map?” he asks, uncaring at how loud he is being. 

Recognition shines in Nanase-san’s eyes and he nods appraisingly at it. “Ah, yes, you’ve got there a real treasure map. They say that map leads to the hidden gold of the Toyotomi dynasty.”

“Really?” Akira exclaims, his anger forgotten, and he can hear the surprised hitch of Goro’s breath next to him; no doubt his own nervousness and fear when faced with Nanase-san is gone in the face of the revelation. Toyotomi treasure! Akira isn’t sure exactly how much that would be in today’s money, but it certainly sounds like a lot more than the gold of one person. He is practically trembling with excitement.

“Really really,” Nanase-san says. He pushes his glasses up and grins at them, and for once, Akira doesn’t think Nanase-san looks scary at all.

The two of them leave the recycling store, because Nanase-san has a business to run. They wave their goodbyes, and Akira bows extra low because he was being mean to Nanase-san, yet Nanase-san still helped them with the treasure hunt. 

Goro’s eyes had been shining with delight at the idea of finding real treasure, but he bites his lips when they walk out onto the street again. “Sorry, Akira.”

Goro didn’t do anything wrong, though! So Akira asks, “Why?”

“I couldn’t say anything to Nanase-san. I’m the older one so I should be the one taking care of you.”

Akira hates that Goro plays that card so much, as if by virtue of being born a year earlier, he has to do everything for Akira. Akira wants to help Goro too, and it’s not as if Goro is his _older brother_ . Goro’s his _friend_. 

“We’re partners, see,” Akira says, keeping his voice light and upbeat so he doesn’t make Goro think he’s upset. “You can do the detective-ing, and I can do the talking!”

Goro smiles, so small and so genuine that Akira can feel the warmth in his own chest. “Thanks, Akira.”

Akira beams at him. He opens the map again and gives it to Goro with an expectant nod. With renewed determination in his eyes, Goro nods back and peers at it, angling it here and there as if that would help him suss things out better. It must though, because after a few minutes of patient silence, Akira hears him start muttering to himself - a sure sign that Goro’s big detective brain is unraveling a mystery.

“I’ve seen this somewhere before,” Goro says, frowning. 

Akira peers over his shoulder at the map. It’s a blobby thing, almost like a teapot, with a rectangle right at the centre, flanked by two circles. It’s a very strange design, to be sure, and Akira thinks that if he saw this somewhere, he would recognize it immediately.

“Look at this circle,” Goro says, pointing at the one on the left of the rectangle. “It has a weird grey ring around it.”

“Oh yeah, it does,” Akira says, because that’s true. “I wonder what it is?”

“Hmm,” Goro says, and he tilts the map this way and that as if that would help him. “It kind of reminds me of...a race track?”

“A race track? Like a horse?” Akira asks. His dad shows Akira the race track sometimes when he gambles on horses, but he doesn’t think that the Toyotomi dynasty had that back then.

Goro hums. “Maybe not a race track for horses, but a race track for people? Akira, can I borrow your phone?”

Akira dutifully places the phone into Goro’s hand and watches as Goro types something into the map function, zooming in and out and scrolling. Akira tries to look at what Goro’s looking at, but the bright sun shining down on them makes everything hard to see.

Goro doesn’t seem to be having similar difficulties though because he says “Ah-ha!” and turns the phone to Akira, using his hand to block out the sunlight. Akira still doesn’t know what he’s looking at though, and he tilts his head slightly. 

Sensing that his brilliant deduction has been lost on his Watson, Goro explains, “I think this is a race track for people, and this map is pointing to the Komazaki Olympic Park.”

Now that he’s looking at it, the picture of the map does look like the picture on the phone. “That’s amazing, Goro,” he breathes, clapping his hands and watching as a pleased smile appears on Goro’s face. “You’re so smart!”

“It’s nothing,” Goro mumbles, but he’s kicking the ground in an abashed way. He keeps clicking on the screen and says, “If we walk to Nakazato and take the 11, we can get there in twenty minutes. We have enough money for a round trip, I think?”

“The 11?”

“The bus,” Goro says. He fumbles through the frog-shaped change purse that Akira’s mom gave them. “It’s 220 yen for one of us, so…”

“440 yen?”

“We need to go there and then come back, so it’s more like 880 yen.”

880 yen! That’s almost all the money they have. They only have one shot at this, and Akira is feeling his palms sweat with something more than the heat. He trusts Goro, but what if Goro is wrong? They wouldn’t be able to go anywhere else. They wouldn’t even have enough money to buy drinks or food if they run out, and he surreptitiously puts his hand into his pockets as he follows Goro to the bus stop, feeling out the candy. 

Still three caramels and a hard candy. Not enough if they end up stranded somewhere but maybe he and Goro can take up panhandling if they need more money. People are nice to kids who are starving, right?

The journey to the bus stop ends much faster than he expects, and there isn’t much of a line-up. Goro stands facing the street, the map safe in his pocket, and he stares blankly out into space. Akira copies him, but with each passing second, his heart beats faster and faster in his chest until he’s sure that Goro could hear it.

Akira can’t deny that he’s nervous. Every time he takes the bus, it’s with his mom, who lets him sit when there’s a seat and tells him where to go and what to do. He trusts Goro with his life, of course, but Goro is only a year older than him. Despite how much Goro likes to pretend that he’s leagues more mature, he’s a kid like Akira is.

But Goro looks at him curiously, no doubt from all the fidgeting that Akira is doing. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh! Um, nothing.”

“It’s obviously not nothing. You look like you’re about to cry.”

Akira stomps his foot down, uncaring of the looks he garners from the grown-ups around him. “I’m _not_ about to cry!” he says, even though his voice is getting wobbly. He swallows down a few times and asks, “Have you ever been on the bus alone?”

Goro blinks. “I ride the bus and the trains alone whenever I visit Yongen-Jaya, you know.”

Oh, right. Goro did mention in the earlier days of their friendship that his aunt and uncle never let him sit in their car because they think he’s dirty. Now Akira feels sad, and even more like a baby. He sniffles angrily, furious at himself for feeling so scared when Goro must be even more scared every day, and he wipes at his eyes. 

“Don’t rub at your eyes, Akira. They’ll get all red,” Goro says. He rummages through his pockets and pulls out a small red handkerchief, dabbing away at the tears that gathered in Akira’s eyes. 

“I can do that myself,” Akira says, reaching up to try and take the handkerchief from Goro but Goro shakes him off. 

“Just let me take care of you. I’m older than you so I’m the big brother.”

Akira pouts, but he lets Goro baby him, even though he hates it so much. When Goro reaches out his hand for Akira to take, he grabs onto it. Not because he’s scared or anything, of course, but because he wants Goro to feel in charge. 

When the bus finally arrives, the ride is bumpy and long, but Goro lets Akira take a window seat and assures Akira that he’ll tell him when they need to get off the bus. Akira watches as the scenery flies by, sucking on the caramel that Goro popped into his mouth earlier, and he wonders why he was so worried about it in the first place. 

Komazaki Olympic Park is big. Akira vaguely remembers learning about it before, how it had been built a long time ago for the Olympics and then turned into a normal park outside of the gymnasiums. He doesn’t know anything beyond that, 

He’s never been though, and though he desperately wants to look around and explore to his heart’s content, he has a more important duty to fulfill: Akira has to steer Goro around, since Goro has his nose buried in the fading ink of the treasure map rather than on where he’s going. Sometimes Goro doubles back, muttering something under his breath, or he’ll stand in place, forcing Akira to shove him until they’re off the path and not in any danger of being tramped by bikers or joggers. 

Goro doesn’t look up the entire time, doesn’t say anything much to Akira at all, but Akira loves watching him think and deduct. There’s a certain animated look that enters his eyes and in his movements, like he’s finally able to be one hundred percent enthused about something without worrying if he is going to be in trouble for just _liking_ something. 

Akira wouldn’t mind seeing that expression on Goro’s face for the rest of their lives.

It doesn’t take that long before Goro jumps and yells, “I think I know where it is!” before taking off, not even calling over his shoulder for Akira or challenging Akira to a race. Akira follows him though, never overtaking him even though he could. 

Goro stops in front of a nondescript tree, and peers down at the layer of leaves at the base of it. “This is a little unnatural,” he says, pointing at it.

Akira nods. “Fall ended a long time ago and all the other trees don't have anything under them. Why are there so many leaves here?”

“Exactly.”

Without worrying about getting their hands wet or dirty, the two boys start to dig, churning up dirt and leaves and sand without a care. It doesn’t take long before Akira lets out a sharp cry of joy, and Goro gasps in a similar sentiment, at what they find. 

It isn’t Toyotomi treasure, nothing like the gold and jewels that Akira had been fantasizing about all day, but it’s close enough: two boxes of Featherman figures - one Red Hawk and the other Grey Pigeon - are stacked in a shallow hole under the tree. The excitement only grows when Akira realizes that they’re limited edition figures, ones that you could only get if you visited the Featherman pop-up cafe three months prior.

The treasure isn’t gold or jewels, but as Akira reaches into the hole and hands Goro the Grey Pigeon box, watching as the confused frown on his face morph into realization and then shy excitement as he starts to slowly open up the cardboard, he realizes that perhaps his mom and Sojiro-san gave him something worth more than any physical thing on Earth.

The laughter of the two boys as they ran around Komazaki Olympic Park, chasing each other and making funny voices when they pretended to be Feathermen, sounds out through the sunny air. Neither of the boys realize the delighted looks they garner, and they don’t leave until Akira’s mom shows up to pick them up, a fond smile on her face as the treasure hunters recount to her their perilous journey.


End file.
